Assessment of Soil Fertility Status of Radaur Block of Yamunanagar District of Haryana for Better Fertilizer Management

Abstract

The present investigation was carried out to assess the fertility status of the soils of Radaur Block in Yamunanagar, Haryana. The results presented are compiled using the soil test report of two hundred thirteen soil samples collected from 0-15 cm depth by the farmers of Radaur during 2021-22 and bought to Regional Soil Testing Laboratory, CCS HAU, KVK, Karnal for analysis. The observed data revealed that pH of almost 99.53% soil samples were near neutral ranging between 7.1- 8.0. This pH range is very much appropriate for the availability of majority of plant nutrients. Likewise 96.71% soil samples exhibited EC in very low range making the soil very much suitable for agricultural activities. About 8.45 and 29.11% of Radaur block were found deficient in OC and available K content, respectively. OC status of the soil depicts that 83.09% soil samples were in medium range of OC content and only 8.45% samples exhibited high OC content. As far as P availability is concerned nearly 74% of the soil samples were having available P in high range clearly indicating the buildup of P in Radaur soils. Although none of the sample was found deficient in available P content. Contrary to K status of Yamunanagar soils in 2010-11, in 2021-22 exactly 10 years later the scenario has completely changed and a continuous decline in available K status is exhibited. This decline may be due to low rate of K application through fertilizer and manures with K removal by crops exceeding the replenishment. The results revealed that only 9.39% soil samples were in high range and 61.50% in medium range of K availability.

Soil fertility mapping of soil nutrients in areas adopting rice wheat cropping system in Karnal, Haryana

“…High base saturation or semiarid environments with irregular rainfall which cause ions to accumulate in plough layer can also be the reason for alkaline nature of the soil. The neutral to alkaline pH may be attributed to the reaction of applied fertilizer material with soil colloids, [17,18,23] .…”

“…The range of available P in rice growing soils was considerably large which might be due to change in soil properties viz., pH, OC content, texture and various management practices which affects the availability/fixation/ transformation of phosphorus in the soil (Gyawali et al, 2016) [18] . As efficiency of applied P is very low and it comes in available form very slowly and plants take up only 10-40 per cent of applied P during the growing season (Aulakh and Pasricha, 1999; Guru Prem et al, 2017; Khokhar et al, 2022) [2,17,23] and the rest resides in the soils as less soluble products. It is also recommended that in case of paddy, the application of DAP could be omitted, if recommended dose of it is applied to previous crop wheat.…”